Summer Morzine

Charles Long - Thames Valley Tango

I have been dancing Argentinian Tango since 1998.  I'm profoundly grateful for being introduced to Tango, even if to start with I was a reluctant learner. I soon discovered that I loved learning and dancing Tango, and now it is a central part of my life.  I have danced in Europe and the USA and study regularly with visiting maestros as well as attending milongas in London and elsewhere across the UK. 

I am passionate about sharing Tango with a wide audience, and I believe that Tango should be rewarding and enjoyable too. This is reflected in my dancing and the lessons; we have a lot of fun learning Tango!

Tango can be challenging, but I also soon find that it allows me to share an experience that is unique to Tango.  For me what’s important is not how it looks from the outside, but rather how it feels inside; what both follower and leader are experiencing in a dance that is special and exclusive to them.  It’s something that anyone can share, regardless of their level of dancing.

My day job outside Tango is in the Motor Industry; I have worked in senior management for national and blue chip companies and still find time between dances to work as a consultant to organisations in the UK and USA.  I'm a Fellow of the Institute of the Motor Industry and have a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing.  My interests also include motorsport; I'm a past national champion in kart racing... but I try not to speed or overtake around the dance floor.

Irina Zoueva - Thames Valley Tango

My affair with Tango started a long time ago. Born in Moscow in the Soviet times, I never cared too much about the enthusiastic and wholesome songs about "the builders of communism". By contrast, the Tango - dangerous, dark and moody - captured my imagination even when I was a child. If not openly forbidden, Tango was certainly frowned upon and was regarded as yet another sign of the decadence of the West - which, of course, made Tango even more seductive.

Come the teen age and Tango went into the background but was never forgotten. Salsa, Ceroc - they were just pastimes... the news that Tango was taught in a neighbouring town came as a shock. I started lessons immediately and there was no looking back after that. For the last few years, I have been dancing or taking lessons five or six days a week, initially as a follower then also as a leader. In early 2006 I started helpingwith Tango lessons and this re-awakened my passion for teaching (I was a maths and language teacher in Moscow before moving to the UK, where I work now as a journalist/translator for the BBC).

For me Tango is much more than just a beautiful dance to beautiful music. Most of all, Tango is about a brief (only 3 minutes!) but intense relationship: total truston the follower's part and total care and responsibility of the part of the leader. It is this profound connection - passionate communication without words - that makes Tango stand out among all other dances for me. And this is what we are trying to teach: how to connect with your partner.

If I can share my love for this wonderful dance, if I can encourage and inspire our students... for a teacher, there can be no greater reward!